A Beckoning Heart
by Huddyalways-24-BK-MA
Summary: When Bill makes good on her rain check and asks Karen out to dinner, they have a lovely time finding out they have more in common then they thought. However, what will happen when an unexpected visitor shows up? WRITTEN BY THE B/K FORUM.


**_This is a B/K fic that the people at the B/K forum; take5, Palmer4President, twentyfour(dot)mad and myself, Huddyalways-24-BK-MA, wrote together and wish to share with you. Please do R/R! Hope you enjoy. Takes place after Season 5._**

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He sat in the car contemplating, waiting. Maybe he should just walk up to her door… or maybe not. She didn't even know that he had come to ask her… ask her out to dinner. He decided he better ring her. So he nervously flipped open his phone and rang her home phone.

"Karen Hayes speaking," Karen answered tiredly after picking up the phone. She had just had a nice, long nap after a long and tiring day at work, if you could even call it that.

"Uh, hi Karen. It's Bill. I was just wondering if you were doing anything tonight?" he asked, doing his best to try and sound calm. "I mean, we haven't made good on that rain check yet, and I'd like to take you out to dinner, if you want."

Inside her house, Karen sat on her couch, grinning like a teenager with a crush.

"I would love to," she replied smiling. "When can you pick me up?" At this, Bill couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.

"Look out your window."

Karen left her seat and curiously approached her window to see Bill sitting in his car parked across the street, waving shyly at her. She could only smile and raise an eyebrow.

"That's a little presumptuous, don't you think?"

"Hopeful, nervous, and unsure, perhaps, but I would never presume," Bill replied smoothly. Karen smiled and left the window.

"Tell you what. Why don't you come inside to wait and I'll get ready."

"Okay, I'll see you in a moment then." Bill grinned.

"Okay," She said and they both hung up.

Bill exited his car and walked towards the house. He was about to knock on the door, but it opened just as Bill's hand reached to where the door was.

"Come in," Karen said beckoning him inside. Bill dropped his hand back to his side. _Gosh, I must have looked like an idiot with my hand up like that, _he thought nervously.

Karen looked back at Bill who was still standing at the door. "Are you going to come in?" she asked

"Oh yeah, sorry," he replied as he entered the house. Karen motioned for him to sit down on the couch.

She sat down next to him on the couch with a smile, "So what were you thinking of doing?"

"Well, I was thinking we could go see a movie, then I have a table booked at one of my favourite restaurants." he explained to grinned again.

"What?" Bill asked noticing this. Not that he had a problem with it; he had loved her smile ever since he first saw it when she had asked for a rain check.

"You had this planned out even before you asked me. How'd you know I'd even agree?"

"I had a hunch," he said, grinning as equally as her.

"I guess I better go and get ready then." Karen said with a wink. She stood up from the couch and walked over to the stairs, but then suddenly turned back to Bill.

"Please, make yourself at home. I won't be long." She smiled before disappearing upstairs.

About 15 minutes later Karen came down the stairs to an awaiting Bill, who was lounging comfortably on her couch.

Upon watching Karen coming down the stairs, his mouth gaped open. The beautiful Karen he knew looked even more beautiful, with her hair let down and a gorgeous smile on her face.

She was wearing a black satin dress, which was up to her ankles, and a black coat that matched perfectly with her dress.

"Karen, you look... stunning," Bill murmured, in lack of better words.

"You really think so?" Karen beamed looking down at her clothes in admiration.

"Who wouldn't?" Bill stated.

Karen blushed with another smile. "Let's go."

"After you," Bill offered his arm to Karen and they navigated toward the door.

Once in the car Karen became even more nervous than before. What she didn't know was how nervous Bill was. The ride was so silent while both Bill and Karen searched for something to say. Bill got to there first.

"So are you a native to LA?" he asked.

Karen sighed with relief the tension was no more. "No, I'm from Seattle,"

Bill was happy to hear this, "I lived in Seattle for a while, when I ran Division there."

"It certainly is an interesting place," she pointed out.

"Yeah," Bill laughed, as they finally pulled into the restaurant of their destination.

Karen looked out the window and eyed the restaurant.

"Oh Bill, I drive past this place everyday to work. I've always wanted to come here after my shift, but I never could find the time." Karen nodded as she started coming out of the car. Bill was silently chuckling to himself, with a smile growing on his face.

"What?" Karen asked Bill when she saw his smile, after he too exited the car.

"Oh, it's nothing." Bill replied, quickly changing his demeanour. But of course there was something that had made him smile, knowing Karen and her work habits, she obviously wouldn't have been able to go to a restaurant and have time to relax. Instead she'd rather stay at work for hours on end, even after her shift for reasons unknown to him and mankind; making it difficult for her to even try get to the restaurant before it closed, and the restaurant closed pretty late.

Karen and Bill entered the flashy restaurant together. As they both entered the restaurant and neared the reception area, Karen looked around at the modern architecture. She really did like the restaurant so far.

"I've got a reservation for two, under Buchanan" Bill said to the Maître d'.

"Ah yes, right this way," the Maître d' acknowledged, leading the two patrons towards a table near a window. The Maître d' gave out the menus and wine list while telling them that he'd be back shortly to take their orders.

"Isn't this nice," Karen stated admiring the view from the window.

"Yeah," Bill responded with a lack of anything else to say. They were silent for some moments.

Soon a man came over to take their order, when they both told him what it was they wanted he was off, leaving Bill and Karen alone again.

"Actually," Karen started with a slightly confused expression on her face "I thought you said we were going to the movies then to this restaurant."

"Um… right yeah, to be honest with you, I'm not sure a movie would have worked," Bill told Karen.

She drew a slightly puzzled look on her face, "Why is that?"

"I can't speak for you, but I myself was very nervous on our way over here. At least with dinner I have something to do when my nerves kick in," Bill said reluctantly.

Karen smiled, "I was nervous too, at first, but hey- what is there to be nervous about?"

Karen was giving him a reassuring smile which she didn't know just made Bill Buchanan more nervous but he played it cool saying, "I guess you're right."

"So..." Bill trailed off.

"I think we left off talking about where I am from. So tell me, where does the great Bill Buchanan call home?" Karen asked.

"New York," he answered.

"I had a feeling," Karen said.

"And how would you feel something like that?" Bill asked curiously.

The Maître d' came back with their drinks and Karen's course interrupting Bill and Karen's talk. The Maître d' then told Bill his meal was going to come shortly. _That was fast, didn't we just order?!_ Bill thought.

Karen eyed her food and smiled. It looked delicious and smelt even better. _I can't wait to get into this,_ Karen thought, suddenly finding herself extremely hungry.

"Are you ever going to answer my question?" Bill asked trying to get Karen's attention away from her plate of food, which was currently her main focus.

"Maybe... once I've finished this." Karen replied, quickly looking back up at Bill.

The Maître d' came back with Bill's meal.

"You're never going to tell me, are you?" Bill said as he stared at Karen who had already started eating.

Her mouth was full so she responded with a grin and a shake of her head.

"I had a feeling." Bill said mockingly. Karen shook her head again, but this time her grin was a full smile.

She could hardly contain her pleasure at their flirtatious banter. Still, she wasn't about to tell Bill that she remembered every single detail from his file that she read several weeks ago when she had been taking over CTU. As much as she was having a wonderful time, she didn't want to come on too strongly.

"So you're from New York," she commented. "How did you end up on the west coast?"

"It seems that CTU likes to shuffle me around from place to place every few years," Bill told her. "I started off in New York, then went over to Seattle, and now here I am in Los Angeles. What about you?"

"Well, I started in Seattle and did most of my schooling there until I moved to New Jersey for college. I later joined the FBI academy in Quantico and continued my career as an FBI agent here in LA. Then after leaving the agency I got offered a job as the Homeland Division Director since the previous one had just retired. And that's pretty much it..." Karen smiled after reciting off her personal history.

"Wow, that's quite a history, you've got there. I guess you're used to moving around then." Bill stated.

"I guess so. Though I really like LA, and I hope I can finally put my feet down here after retiring." She replied sighing slightly.

"And when do you think that will be?" Bill queried.

"I'm not really sure when. Though, I've heard of people who've worked till their death; and that doesn't exactly sound that appealing." Karen responded picking up some more food to eat.

_No it really doesn't._ Bill thought as he saw her gobble her food down.

Dinner had passed with pleasant conversation, flirtatious touches, and suggestive glances. As they sat drinking the last of their wine, topic turned from careers and schooling to family and past loves. As it turns out, both Bill and Karen had been married though neither had resulted in children. Karen nervously glanced down into her cup, not wanting to intrude as she had the feeling that it was his wife who left him. But curiosity got the better of her-she needed to know what happened. She couldn't understand how a woman could have a man as wonderful as Bill and not hold on with both hands.

"What happened, Bill?" She asked gently.

"As a government agent yourself, you must know the time consuming nature of this job. Well Janis didn't," he started.

Karen didn't say anything, waiting for him to continue.

Bill did continue, but not before releasing a large sigh, "Maybe I shouldn't be saying any of this, it makes me sound like one of those jerk husbands who pays no attention to his wife."

"I don't think so. I couldn't see you as that kind of husband, Bill," she assured him.

"I did try, I tried a lot. We'd fight, but I thought it was just small stuff, like all couples fight about. Then one day I was out of town and I decided I could get away earlier, so I thought I'd surprise her. I called her from the plane and told her I was on my way home, I thought she'd be overjoyed but instead she freaked out," he explained.

Karen had a bit of an idea as to where this was headed, "Why?"

"I got home finally and she told me we needed to talk. She explained very coldly that she had found someone else and she wanted a divorce," Bill responded.

"How awful," Karen exclaimed.

"No, the awful thing was when I found out who she had had an affair with. It was my old partner," he told Karen.

"That's horrible," she said. Karen placed a hand on top of Bill's and gave him a comforting smile, which he quickly returned.

"Now what about you Karen?"

"Well..." Karen said not really knowing where to start. "My husband, Simon, he was such a caring man, and he understood my career and was actually quite supportive, until he lost his job and started hanging out in the pub more often. I later heard from one of his mates at the pub that he'd take any girl he'd find at the pub and just take her to a hotel for the night." Karen stopped and took a sip from her wine glass.

"I didn't believe it when they told me what he'd do though, but it all made perfect sense as he seemed to come back home either very late or the next day, and never any earlier. So one day I decided to come out of work a bit earlier to really see what he spent his night doing. Turns out his friends weren't lying, I saw him with two women in his arms walking towards the hotel across the street. I was absolutely heartbroken." She took another sip of her wine and then looked down at her hands.

"Hey," Karen heard Bill say, his hand clutching hers a bit tighter. "You don't have to continue if it's too personal."

"No, it's fine." Karen said giving a small smile towards Bill. The wine was really starting to get to her now.

"So the next day at work I plucked up the courage enough to go to the pub that Simon always goes to and ask him, if it was true what I saw the other day and if it had been going on the past 5 months he'd been at the pub. He didn't deny it, he just said, 'Yeah I guess...' He was too intoxicated to not tell me the truth, and I was extremely angry so I punched him right then and there in the pub- which incidentally knocked him out." She paused once again. _How aggressive,_ Bill thought.

"A couple days after having talked to Simon about the issue, whether Simon was happy about it or not, I filed for a divorce. That's basically it." Karen finished shrugging.

"Are you alright about it now?" Bill asked putting his hand on her arm comfortingly.

"Yeah I guess," Karen sighed.

The rest of the night flew past quite quickly- both Bill and Karen thought, because no sooner had they finished up their dessert than they were asking for the bill for their meal.

"I'm paying," Karen quickly blurted, when Bill was looking over the bill the Maître d' had just given them. He looked up from behind the piece of paper, and gave a small smirk.

"Really now?" Bill asked her. She blushed a bit; she knew 'traditionally' he should be paying, but Karen just didn't like how the male always felt obligated to pay- it never felt right to her. In short, she wanted to pay.

"Yes," she stated bluntly, taking the piece of paper away from his hands. The bill said it cost $60, a reasonable cost for the meal. "And you can't do anything to stop me from doing so," Karen continued as she stood up from the table and walked hastily towards the counter, handbag in hand.

"Karen," Bill said as he followed her to the main desk.

"Hi, um, I'll like to pay for this bill," Karen said to the worker, as she placed the bill onto the countertop and took out her card. The person behind the counter gave her the machine to swipe her card. She quickly swiped it and punched in her pin number. By the time Bill had finally reached where Karen was, he sighed, _I should be the one paying_ he thought, for he did ask her out, not the other way round, then still- even if she had asked him out, he would have happily paid.

"Karen, why did you do that?" Bill asked her seriously, as Karen received the receipt and the receptionist said 'Have a good night'.

"Because..." she trailed off, she didn't know exactly what to say.

"Because, what?" he questioned her once again his eyebrow raised, a smirk was slightly hidden in the corner of his mouth.

"Because, then I don't have to pay next time," Karen said hoping her statement sounded plausible, even though it was one of the worst lies she had ever told.

"Right..." Bill said raising an eyebrow. _She is an extremely bad liar_, he thought, but he didn't want to push the subject- he knew he wouldn't get the truth out of her unless she downed another bottle of wine.

"C'mon," Bill started with a sigh, "let's go, it's getting late." he nodded looking down at his watch.

The ride back to Karen's condo was awfully quiet and even more uncomfortable than the drive to the restaurant, so when they finally reached their destination, they both inwardly sighed with relief.

He walked her to the door, with one hand behind his back and the other to his side, like a real gentleman.

"Do you want to come in?" Karen asked him, slightly licking the inside of her bottom lip.

"Uh, well,"

"Actually, I need you to come in, I've got some paperwork that needs your signature, it's the least you could do- since I did pay for dinner," she quickly said with a grin, as she opened the door to her condo.

As Karen ushered Bill into her condo, she quickly placed her purse down and went into the kitchen.

"Would you like some coffee?" she called to Bill.

"Sure," he replied, draping his jacket over a chair. Several minutes later, Karen returned with two steaming mugs of coffee.

"Thanks," Bill replied before taking a mug and sitting down on the couch. Karen disappeared for a minute and reappeared with the papers she had mentioned.

"Here, I just need you to take a look at these," she muttered, sitting down next to Bill and setting the papers in front of him. Bill pushed them aside and looked up amusedly at Karen, whose eyes connected with his.

"Karen..." Bill muttered, smiling and shaking his head slightly.

"What?" Karen asked, suddenly worried. Bill grinned.

"Either you really are a workaholic, or you're an awful liar," Bill told her honestly. Karen blushed a little and looked down. "It's okay, though," Bill continued, smiling. "I don't mind." Karen looked up and smiled shyly.

"So, Bill…"

"Karen-" they both stopped short, laughing lightly.

"Go ahead," she said gently.

"I was just wondering, if you might need my signature for other documents too. Perhaps, next Saturday night?"

Karen grinned and began playing with her hands. "Despite the fact that I am a workaholic, a horrible liar, and a very controlling woman."

Bill moved closer to Karen and placed his hands over hers. "Well, I happen to like controlling women. Takes the guess work out of it for me."

She was elated, and before she knew it, she impulsively kissed him. Embarrassed by her sudden actions, and the testament that she was in fact a take-charge kind of woman, she pulled back quickly.

"Wait-why'd you stop? Come back here," laughed Bill.

Another kiss followed after another until they finally pulled away and just stared at each other. Neither knew what to say, it wasn't an awkward silence, just a loss for words.

"Well then..." Karen finally said, still without a complete thought or sentence.

"Karen-" Bill was about to add something pleasantly, but she cut him off.

"Wow it's late," she said staring at her watch.

Bill smiled and continued to stare at the wonderful woman in front of him, who didn't loose eye contact from her watch.

Her comment had been a notion to Bill, or an escape plan. The only problem with this plan was Bill had no intention of leaving. She could sense him still looking at her and she couldn't stare at her wrist forever, so she looked up.

"It's not that late," Bill said to break her silence.

"I know," she admitted. "I'm also very bad at talking in situations such as--well such as this one."

"And what kind of situation would this be?" he grinned, finding humour in the fact that this 'very controlling woman' was now nervous beyond explaining it properly.

"It's a well..." Karen started, she couldn't think. _What is this current situation and how did I get into it?_ Karen asked herself. She focused on his eyes- his ever so blue eyes.

Bill smirked slightly, he knew she didn't have an answer; he knew what he was doing to her.

"Please do continue," Bill smirked slightly.

"Umm..." she tried again. _Think before you speak Karen, think before you speak._ She couldn't think though. The realization of how close Bill really was to her was making her loose focus. She just wanted to kiss him again. _How did he do it? In one day, one afternoon he's made me want him, kiss him, fall for him._ She shook her head to try clear her mind. Ugh... why didn't he go before, when I indicated for him to?!

Bill was looking at her slightly intrigued. He wanted to know what was going on inside her mind; he wanted to know what she was thinking.

Bill's hand slightly brushed against her cheek as he pushed aside some strands of hair that had fallen onto her face. The touch sent sparks through both of them. His hand found the back of her head, and slowly he pulled her towards him

"Have you seen my shirt?" Asked Bill as frantically tried to find his clothing in the dark. Karen rolled up into a sitting position face glowing, hair mussed.

"Umm…" she started before breaking out into a fit of giggles. Bill shot his head up from putting on his socks, he looked flushed and frantic. His serious stare only encouraged Karen's laughter before she could finally breathe out, "Hanging on the lamp."

He had received an emergency call from work and was disrupted from having one of the most glorious nights of his life. Now he was trying to get dressed as fast as he could and Karen's laughter wasn't helping.

"I don't understand what's so funny," he huffed, stopping to realize that he was putting his shirt on inside out.

"I just think it's amusing that the Director of CTU got an emergency phone call while sleeping with the Divisional Director for Homeland Security. I can't imagine the look on Chloe's face had she known that was the situation she was interrupting."

Bill had to grin at the thought. To others it would seem like a highly unlikely situation, but now he couldn't imagine it being any other way. Finishing the buttons on his shirt he leaned forward and kissed her quickly.

"Well at least they weren't calling their Director while he was sleeping with the National Security Advisor."

"Haha, very true," said Karen, returning the kiss. Softly adding "I had a nice time tonight."

"Me too," he said, brushing her hair back. "I can't imagine this will take me too long. Dinner tomorrow night?"

"Absolutely, call me."

"I will." After he left Karen got out of bed and headed downstairs to shut off all the lights. She noticed that Bill forgot his jacket and took it with her to put it in the closet. As she neared the bottom of the stairs there was a knock at the door.

Laughing she answered it. "Why Bill Buchanan, did I have you flustered?"

The man at the door looked surprised. "Karen?"

Karen's face fell immediately as she realized that the man standing before her was not the man who currently held her affections, rather the man who used to. "Simon-"


End file.
